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145 On 15 December 1916 Ticul’s local authorities dragged Teodora Estrada before the local revolutionary military commander on charges of prostitution. After listening to the evidence against her, Teodora denied the shameful accusation and defended her honor. Vehemently arguing that she did not work in the immoral trade of bodies, she insisted that her only mistake was knocking on Roberta Escamilla Alvarado’s door to ask her to return some of her things, including a hammock, a small washing bowl, and a pair of earrings. While Teodora waited in the yard on that fateful day, Roberta took her aside to ask if she would be interested in sleeping with a man for two nights in exchange for a good hammock. Disgusted with this idea, Teodora told the military commander that she refused Roberta’s request and fled the house in horror. Teodora said that only later did she find out that Roberta was a wealthy madam, welcoming women to her house and then consigning them to various men for a substantial profit. According to Roberta’s response , however, Teodora was not exactly an innocent victim. Despite her compelling testimony, it also appeared that Teodora knew full well what went on inside Roberta’s home and place of business. Although Teodora had been absent for a few months and may have refused to accept the men that Roberta proposed that particular night, Roberta insisted that Teodora was quite familiar with such illicit activities and had actively participated many times in the past.1 Despite Roberta’s and Teodora’s adamant protestations, the military commander ultimately ruled against both women. Although they received jail time (six months for Roberta and two months for Teodora), neither woman broke the law simply by virtue of their involvement with the sex trade. Indeed , prostitution was a legal and thriving business in revolutionary Yucat án. Instead, the authorities punished the women for their refusal to comply n n n n n n n n n n n Fve prostitutes in revolutionary yucatán Women in Public and Public Women 146 n p r o s t i t u t e s i n r e v o l u t i o n a r y y u c atá n with Article 222 of Yucatán’s Sanitary Code, which regulated almost every aspect of a prostitute’s life. This law required all “women of the night” to register with the city of Mérida, and it also laid out a series of exacting restrictions for houses of prostitution. In this case, Teodora was not on the official list of registered prostitutes, making her a clandestina, or clandestine prostitute, and Roberta had not obtained the necessary permission to operate as an approved house of prostitution.2 Just a mere three days later, however, Salvador Alvarado, acting in his capacity of governor and military commander, overturned his regional military commander’s ruling on this particular matter. After reading the Sanitary Code’s chapter on appropriate fines, Alvarado argued that six months of confinement was applicable only when a prostitute missed her required twice-a-week physical exam, and that Teodora’s and Roberta’s punishment was inappropriate anyway since clandestine prostitution fell under the jurisdiction of the Superior Board of Sanitation .3 In other words, the military commander had overstepped his authority by improperly ruling on the women instead of referring the case to the appropriate officials. Roberta and Teodora practiced their trade during an era when revolutionary officials experienced increasing anxiety over the control of an unruly segment of the state’s population and attempted to legislate morality with “modern” health and sanitation codes in response. Indeed, both women operated outside Yucatán’s liberalized prostitution laws, which stated that it was illegal to practice unregulated prostitution. Although revolutionary officials instigated progressive health measures that applied to the general population overall, they argued that women particularly needed regulations to keep them safe, free of drugs and alcohol, and moral for the good of the country. After all, according to revolutionary ideology, only a healthy and decent woman could properly bear and raise the nation’s future citizens. Beyond ordinary women, though, revolutionary politicians claimed that increased health reforms were even more crucial as a means to monitor the behavior of women like Roberta and Teodora, particularly since the unsanitary and immoral conditions of their lives as prostitutes could contaminate the wider society and spread to more “respectable” households. In spite of the...

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